Ventura Pier May Reopen by New Year’s Day

Even as they braced for another series of powerful waves expected today, officials in charge of maintaining Ventura’s landmark wooden pier were counting themselves lucky so far.

The pier, closed because of damage wreaked by surf on Monday, could reopen in time for New Year’s Day because city officials on Tuesday found nine 60-foot-tall replacement pilings in Port Hueneme.

If the pilings had been unavailable, the pier would have been closed for months while the city waited for loggers to fill a special order, officials said.

City workers Tuesday completed a temporary reinforcement to the pier, strapping beams to the top of the deck above the knocked-out pilings.

The reinforced pier was expected to withstand today’s waves, which the National Weather Service said would reach five to seven feet in height.

“We’re pretty confident that we’re not going to have a problem,” said Tim Jonasson, a city civil engineer.

City inspectors said the snapped pilings last underwent an underwater inspection in 1993 and were found to be sound. Portions of the 1,958-foot-long, 122-year-old pier were closed from 1986 until 1993, when the pier reopened after a $3.5-million renovation.

Monty Clark, chairman of the volunteer Pier Into the Future Committee, which has raised more than $400,000 for maintenance of the pier, said he was disappointed that the pier has been closed again.

But Clark said winter storm damage is to be expected. “We knew we were going to have to replace some of the pilings,” he said.

In the most recent renovation, construction workers only replaced pilings that were identified as rotted by a diver who tested them with a hammer. But workers left in place hundreds of old pilings--including the ones that snapped in the surf zone Monday morning.

“We did the best job we could of testing them,” maintenance services manager John Betonte said, acknowledging that some failed pilings had been eaten away by sea worms.

Betonte said the repairs would probably cost between $30,000 and $50,000 and be paid for by the city. He said there would be no effort to recover the money from Cushman Contracting Corp., the Santa Barbara-based firm that did the 1993 renovation.

“They didn’t do anything wrong,” Betonte said.

Clark said he was delighted that the replacement pilings had been found nearby, and he said he hoped they will be installed quickly. “We can be back on the pier in no time,” he said.

The pier began its history as a commercial wharf and gradually became a fishing and recreational pier for local residents. It is the longest free-standing wooden pier in California.

Monday’s storm-driven swells reached nine feet in height and combined with a high tide to wash away the pilings under a section of the pier where the waves were breaking. “It’s a lot to ask any wood to withstand,” Jonasson said.

Today’s waves will be smaller, but “still way above normal,” National Weather Service meteorologist Clay Morgan said, predicting that the swells would slowly decrease Thursday and Friday and drop off to normal levels over the weekend. He said there was a 50% to 60% chance of showers today.